Ethics, Eugenics, and Public Education in Georgia (1910-1965)
Masters thesis — Columbus State University, 2017. Full text: https://archive.org/details/guest-csu
Arguments
Ethics, Eugenics, and Public Education in Georgia (1910-1965)
A case study in how a scientific consensus captures institutions — policy, courts, and classrooms moved together on the same "objective" premise.
Georgia's forced sterilization of over 4,000 people from 1939 to 1965 rested on eugenic ideology serving as an "objective" scientific justification for white supremacy and racial hierarchy — and the state's public schools were an active transmission belt, teaching eugenics to the populace.
Why it matters
A case study in how a scientific consensus captures institutions — policy, courts, and classrooms moved together on the same "objective" premise.
Use when: When science becomes the alibi for state power, follow the teaching — the classroom is where a contested idea becomes the next generation's common sense.